Ink Spots
Ink Spots is the new COIN kid on the blog block!
All of the bloggers at Ink Spots are anonymous but from reading their posts, they seem like some of the legion of unidentified but regular commenters at Abu Muqawama decided to set up their own shop. Here are a few of their posts that I recommend:
Wrongly re-interpreting Rumsfeld through McNamara by Gulliver
Really? You don’t know who bought weapons in Liberia?? (minor updates) by Lil
Metrics: Telling the Story, Not Driving Policy by Gunslinger
Plans are worthless, but planning is everything by Gulliver
Hat tip to Dr. Michael Innes of CTLab ( who does not like anonymous blogging)
July 12th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Hi Mark. Actually, I don’t mind anonymous blogging at all – it subverts those who look askance at it and might otherwise levy penalties on bloggers under their control, and that’s a good thing! I think the frustration I was expressing had more to do with what sometimes feels like a COIN community echo chamber. I’m very much looking forward to Ink Spots’ output.Driftjack (a.k.a. Mike Innes)
July 12th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Nice find!
H/T to you and especially Dr. Innes, for what looks to be a welcome source of insightful thought on COIN.
July 12th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
Anonymous blogging has at least one advantage. A lot of people, for professional reasons, could not blog at all under their own names. Better to have those voices in the conversation, and discount, if necessary, for their anonymity.
July 12th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Lex, I agree completely. FYI – not a DR, at least, not for another year or two. Thanks for the painless upgrade, though!
July 13th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Thanks for the link, Mark.
July 14th, 2009 at 2:04 am
I never understand the knock on anonymous blogging (well, I would, wouldn’t I, as I blog sort of anonymously?)
Patients google my name. I don’t mind if they read comments that I write, but I want my professional qualifications, etc, to come up first in the search, not some silly blog comment. If there was a way to make sure of that kind of ranking, then I would use my name.
Speaking of using my real name, I do that at Abu Muqawama and also for my first comment at InkSpot. Like I said at Chicagoboyz, I’m not sure why I am so interested in the topic, but interested I am. It’s like I’m being pulled into some sort of intellectual COIN vortex.
Or, perhaps, it’s because it is ‘getting abstracts ready for my next meeting’ time. Funny how much interesting stuff there is to read online when it is time to write a grant, or something.
– Madhu
July 14th, 2009 at 3:32 am
Anonymous blogging was more important when blogging was less common but there’s still some value in it. The world is still full of vindictive, unethical, control-freak, a**holes who think nothing of trying ruin somebody’s career or harass a stranger because they hold different politcal views. If you are in that kind of a field, remaining anon might be wiser.
July 14th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
"… It’s like I’m being pulled into some sort of intellectual COIN vortex."
.
That should be on a t-shirt.
July 14th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
The SWJ folks were debating a T-shirt logo not too long ago but the discussion went off into the realm of mutual amusement